Organizing Meds & Cleaning Supplies

For a week or so I've been wanting to go through my cleaning supplies and medicines to make sure what I was storing was stuff we needed to keep. It hadn't been that long since I'd cleaned them both out, maybe 6months or so. But I was feeling like we needed to purge further.

Cleaning Supplies

I had made some of my cleaning supplies back when I cleaned them out last. I made an all-purpose cleaner for countertops, toilet bowl/seat and pee on the floor (hey, we're potty training!). I also made a window cleaner. I tried to make a wood furniture polish but the recipe I had I didn't like how it turned out, so I'm still using store bought.

I don't use store bought toilet cleaners, but dish soap. I'd read about using that through FlyLady. Cheap dish soap works just as well as any "toilet cleaner" and it's safe to use around Trey (no chemicals to inhale) and it's WAY cheaper. I also keep a bottle in the cabinet next to each toilet, not with the other cleaning supplies.

As for shower/tub cleaners I'd been using store bough scrub but wasn't liking that it was a chemical as well. So this week I switched to baking soda. Also safe and cheap.

So all that to say here is what's in my cleaning supply cabinet. Or rather my before pic. Sorry it's kind of dark back there!

Just like any roomy cabinet, things get put in the back and then forgot or you can't get to them. So I got baskets at Dollar Tree (love that everything really is only a dollar!)

My cute baskets and my Dymo labeler (love this thing!)

After sorting all the cleaning supplies, this is what isn't going back in the cabinet. I know it isn't much but it felt good to me to get it out of our home.

This is what is gettting shoved to the back. My big basket of deep cleaning supplies: carpet cleaner to use with my carpet cleaner! I wasn't ready to get rid of that yet. My big bottle of vinegar that I use to make my homemade cleaners and my supplies to make my homemade laundry soap. The towels in the middle are my shammies and the other basket holds my wood polish, stain oil, cutting board oil and silver polish.

I have a stack of white towels that my MIL bought me when we moved into this house. She's big on using them for everything and when she helped clean the house while we were trying to move it she bought me some. I love using them! She gets them in a big pack at Sam's. Not sure how much they are but they last me a long time! I use them for cleaning everything! So they got a basket of their own to keep them from falling over and so I can get to the stuff behind them.
The general cleaning holds, window cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, wood cleaner, canned air and any smelly spray.
I know I still have some chemical cleaners but rotating them out is a process and I'm constantly working on finding more natural replacements for them.

Medicine Drawer

Ok, this can be a personal kind of thing. At least showing pics of what I have and have thrown out. However I want to show how much I threw out and how I organized it. We have large drawers in our hallway and I use one to store our meds. It works really well and Trey can't get into it. The drawer is about 18x16 and about 9in deep.

Here's the before pic. 

This is all the meds pulled out on the changing table. Our changing table is tall and roomy so this was a great space for me to do this!
Like I said before, I'd gone through this around 6months ago and purged a TON of pain pills! David and I have both had surgery so we ended up with a boat load of pain pills. I don't like taking those so a bunch got flushed. I'd kept one bottle of heavy meds but this time I decided that we really had no need to keep them. We're down to just the basics. We had lots of duplicates with different outsides that I condensed down to one and some stuff we just weren't going to use or didn't use. I also had about 5 thermometers, mostly from baby showers (why does everyone give you a thermometer?). I kept 2, one mouth one and one forehead one.
I also had lots of boxes with the pills in the foil packages. I hate those! So, using empty bottles from the pills I flushed I used those to hold the boxed pills. I cleaned them out and made my own labels. These take up way less space and look neater. For bandaids I just put all those in a ziplock bag. They store flat which I like.
Here's the trash pile.

Here's the keep pile.
And here it is in the drawer.

I had some extra room on the right side that I could fit our ace bandage, corn bag and my essential oils. I hadn't been able to put the oils in the drawer before, so I really like this set up.
I didn't label the baskets because there wasn't a place to put the labels. So I put little labels on top of some of the bottles. Just enough to give an idea of where most items are.
I like this set up so far, but I have a feeling things will just get thrown back into those baskets eventually.

Ideally, I'd love to downsize this even further. I'm trying to get more essential oils to take care of most ailments and do away with the "drugs". I want to get better about putting good stuff in and on our bodies.

Weekend Projects

This weekend I was able to finish a couple of small projects that I had been meaning to, well, finish!

First up was refinish/clean up a solid wood cutting board I found at Goodwill back in February. I absolutely LOVE wood! So when I saw this cutting board, I had to have it and since it was $1 I figured I'd splurge and get it.

The before pics.

They were used but the cuts weren't deep. I wanted to sand it down past any finish and past the cut marks. And then I added our trusty block oil (for cutting boards).

So here's the after and I think it looks great! The pic doesn't quite do it justice.

    
Next project is something special to me. It's a wind chime that was my Grandpa's. He made it probably around 30+ years ago to put by the pool he had installed in their backyard for the grandkids. When my grandparents estate was divided up, everyone got to request certain items. If no one else wanted what you wanted you got it. I wanted the wind chime. It always reminds me of summer and swimming at their house, and of my grandparents.

This is what it looked like when I got it.

(please excuse the nasty on the wall, we will be power washing the porch soon)

It originally had 6 chimes but when I got it, there were only 5. Or as of the start of Spring it only had 2 still hanging. And most of the parts were rusted. I've wanted to fix it for a while but just now got around to it.
The parts cost me about $6. I needed a new ring and wire to hang it (bought the ring and I had the wire). It needed a new chain and fishing line (bought the chain, the fishing line was kindly donated to this project by my good friend, Thanks C!). And lastly it needed a good cleaning and a coat of paint.

The top circle piece is wood and the middle circle and drop shape are some type of acrylic. I cut the chimes off and cleaned and painted it.

I've never used this particular kind but I really like how it worked. I wanted a fun summery color so this is what I chose.

I had no intentions of making this perfect. This is old and more sentimental than some show piece. I just wanted to freshen it up. Which is good since I sprayed too much on some areas and it has drips on it, but I'm ok with it.

Here's the finished piece. I'm very happy with how it turned out. It looks fresh and happy and still reminds me of my childhood and grandparents.

As far as projects go, we were able to get our dirt for our gardens but due to nasty weather I haven't planted anything in them yet. I have my plants but it was too cold for me to go out and plant them. So, I'm hoping to show that off later this week.

Daddy & Trey shoveling dirt

I was also hoping to paint my dresser this week but depending on how cold it is will determine if that happens or not. But I'm hoping to show that off in the next couple of weeks. It's a big part of my master bedroom fix up. And I'm ready to be done with it and show it off.

Free Paint Sample & Stuff

Last week through one of the blogs I follow (I can't remember which one) said that Valspar Paint (at Lowe's) was giving away free paint samples. I checked it out and I just got mine in the mail today. So I'm now sharing the info with you!

Here's the lowdown. If you "like" Valspar Paint on Facebook they will send you a jar of paint in any color you want, a mini roller with tray and extra roller and $5 off your next gallon purchase.

The box

They are only "open" during the day, certain hours (not really sure what they are or why they have hours online) but they direct you to their site where you pick out the color you want the sample to be. Then you fill out your address info and wait for your package.

What's inside

The coupon, paint chip, paint sample, tray and rollers 

I submitted my "order" last Tuesday and it showed up today. And it was totally FREE!!! I didn't pay for shipping or handling, or anything! Valspar is still running this. I'm not sure if it's a limited time thing or what but if you like paint or love free stuff or need to paint soon this is a great opportunity.

 I have no idea what I'm going to paint with my sample but it's nice having some extra paint around for being creative!

I have a couple of projects going on right now so I'll have some stuff to post about next week. Also we are planting our garden on Saturday (SO excited!) and I can share more on that too. And my parents are gutting their master bathroom and totally remodling it and I'm going to try to post about that as well. All of this to say that hopefully I will have some more creative projects to share next week and the week after.

Natural Ways

Well, it's Wednesday and I don't have a WIWW post to share with you. This last week has been crazy and I just didn't take any clothes pics, partly because what I was wearing was stuff I've already shown!

So, I thought I'd talk about something else. This has been on my mind and heart a lot lately and I love learning more about it.

I've been trying to learn what I can about essential oils and herbs and how they are used to heal our bodies, and maintain health in our bodies.

About a year or so ago I started to hear about how essential oils can be a healthy alternative to over the counter drugs. I loved the idea of relying on them for relief or help rather than a drug. When I was prego I had made the decision to had a drug free labor and birth. I didn't like that what meds I took my baby was getting too, even when he didn't need it. I didn't want that stuff going into his tiny growing body. Since his birth I've tried to not take a pill for every little thing even though he wasn't going to get it.

So, when hearing about a way to find relief from sore throat, anxiety, pain, breathing problems and such in a good for my body way, I was SO interested!

You know it makes sense that the God of this universe who created all we see, can create plants that will heal and take care of us in a way that is good for us.

I did buy a few basic oils that I thought our family would use the most: Lavender, (it is a calming oil helpful in relaxing, also good for cuts and burns to heal the skin) Eucalyptus (it's great for opening up breathing passages), Peppermint (also good to help you breathe and good for headaches), Lemon (it's good for sore throats and cleaning) and Orange (I'm not sure what it's good for but I bought it to use in my homemade cleaners, smells so good!).

There are more oils that I'd like to add and I'm trying to learn more about the ones I have. I'd love to trash most of my medicine drawer stuff because we've found healthier alternatives.

I've also been slowly learning about herbs as well, although I haven't been able to try any yet. But that is my goal in the next few months.

I really like using the oils and knowing I can use them on Trey (they can be used on babies too) and that I'm not drugging him or putting something artificial in his body, as well as mine and David's.

I've felt lead for a while to take care of my family in a healthier way and I'm learning daily some of the ways God has provided a way for me to do that.

If you'd like to learn more on essential oils check out Finding My Niche. She has a ton of helpful info on her blog. She does sell oils but she doesn't push, she just shares her knowledge on them with everyone. (By the way I buy mine through Akins Health Food)

If you want to know more about herbs, especially through the childbearing year check out Shalom Mama. She knows a lot about herbs and can answer questions about them, where to get them and how to use them.

I'd love to hear if anyone out there is using either essential oils or herbs and how you use them.

What's Up With Me

So, since last Saturday I've been struggling to get enough rest and just to get regular stuff done.
I've been helping our friends with some house projects (which I LOVE to do). See Friday's post.

And I've had some major dental issues this week. Actually it started about 2 weeks ago with a BLT sandwich in which the bacon attacked my dental work and created a crack. I finally decided to get it checked out this past week.
So I went to my dentist on Tuesday morning and he promptly referred me to a specialist (my current dentist did not install the work that broke, and it's a few years old). So a few hours later I was sitting in another dentist chair.
Then that evening I was eating dinner (another sandwich) and "Houston we have a problem"! Major, major breakage. So, I called the new dentist the next morning and they were kind enough to do a temporary fix.
And now yesterday morning I sat for 3 hours in a chair getting a major overhaul, but it's only my temporaries for a month. Thankfully the permanents won't take long to install.

And the weather was so great this week and I tried to get out more with Trey to enjoy it.
So needless to say, I've had a crazy week and haven't gotten much done! But that's ok, because I helped my friends and played with my son and enjoyed being outside.

Here's hoping that this week will feel more normal!

My Organizing Weekend

Ok, I've finally been able to sit down and write this post! And it's long.

Saturday David and I went over to our friends "the K's" house to help them with some honey do's. Like I said in Monday's post: My Intentions they are expecting baby #2 soon and had several projects that really needed to be done.

First up was their garage. Back in June the four of us spent an entire day cleaning, purging and organizing their garage. These are the original before pics.

Ok, here's the original after pics.

Well, like most families when winter hits you don't go in the garage much, things don't always get put back where they go because it's cold and Christmas brings more stuff and old gets put in the garage. So we ended up with a messy garage again but with the bones of the organization still intact. The organization was still working for them but we just needed to tweek a few things.
Here's the newest before.

It didn't take us very long to get the garage back in shape a couple of hours really. The guys had a car load of recycling and Goodwill to take, stuff needing to go in the attic, items to be returned and general clean up.

Here's the after.

They can now breathe better when coming home after work.

Next up was the kitchen.

Their kitchen has good storage but it just needed to be purged and a few adjustments to where some stuff was.

After spending the last year gradually working our way through their house getting it organized, we've realized that using baskets for wayward items worked great for them. So, we used baskets for several things: tupperware, sippy cups/kiddo cups, lidded cups, bottles & accessories and snack items.

I was a bad blogger and didn't take before pics of the cabinets BUT, I did get a before on the areas before adding the baskets.

Here's the tupperware cabinet:

We purged a ton of tupperware and this is what's left. However tupperware has a bad habbit of spilling over, lids being lost or shoved to the back. There is a ton of space in the cabinet but it was hard to get to the stuff in the back. So, here's what we did.

We went to Dollar Tree and picked up a bunch of baskets that would work for each area. This cabinet had room for 4 of these baskets on the top shelf. We only needed 3 though, we separated the snack sized from the bigger sizes and labeled the baskets to help remember. This is so awesome because they can just pull out a basket to get to everything they need. And they can utilize the back space because they can pull the front basket out to get to the back one.

Next the cup cabinet:

In this cabinet they like the lidded cups and kiddo cups as well as lunch boxes and koozies. This cabinet also has tons of room but things would end up pushed to the back and hidden.

Here's the after:

We had room for 4 of the big baskets on the top shelf, but again only needed 3. The bottom shelf has 2 baskets for lunch boxes/coolers and a small one for koozies. AND has tons of extra space left over!

Now I didn't get a before of the bottles (I thought I had) but here's the after.

We relocated them from another part of the kitchen, in anticipation for their upcoming use. They are right next to the plates, bowls and general cups. But this will keep them from tipping over in the cabinet and from falling down everytime the door is opened. We also loved the colors and they will make Mrs. K happy to look at them!

We were very pleased with the results, we sent 3 trash bags full of kitchen stuff to Goodwill.

We found a lot more space in the cabinets than we thought they had. And we made it a bit more user friendly.

I wanted to share this with you to show you how we organized in a way that works for "the K's". Hopefully this will help others in their efforts.

I absolutely LOVED doing this! I get so energized when I do projects like this and I want to keep doing more!

I'd love to offer tips and help if anyone is interested, just leave me a comment.

WIWW #6

What I Wore Wednesday is brought to you by The Pleated Poppie link up. Where we post what cute things we wore during the week to inspire other mom's to get out of those jammies/sweats and get dressed and share our creativity!

My Target Special Outfit

Cardigan, Blue lace tank & White Tee- Target

Blue necklace- Dustee's

Jeans -Kohl's

Red Flats- DSW

Green Cardigan- Target

Grey Tee- Gap from Goodwill (the most comfy tee ever!)

Turq lace cami- Maurice's

Blue Necklace- Dustee's

Jeans- Kohl's

Black Flats- Famous Footwear

Cardigan- Target

Green Tank- Old Navy

Jeans- Kohl's

Black Flats- Famous Footwear

My Intentions

Well, I had this post I was going to post this morning only I haven't written it yet.
This weekend we helped our best friends aka "the K's" do some projects around their house. They are expecting baby #2 soon and we are trying to help them get their house ready. We've been moving furniture around, cleaning out rooms, purging and organizing.
We spent the majority of Saturday helping them and then visited with the inlaws that evening. Then daylight savings and getting to bed late anyway, church, errands and just taking care of my home and family; my blog post just didn't get written.
I want to go into more detail about the K's home organization/purge extravaganza but not today. I also have some more pics to take.
So all of this to say I will expound on this project later this week and for today I have other things to take care of.

Organizing and Some Tips

I haven't talked much on here about organizing. But it is one of my passions! Organizing and decor go hand in hand (in my opinion). They have the ability to compliment each other, which is why I love them both.

Yesterday, I was feeling sluggish and thought that if I organized one of my closets it would get me motivated to clean the house. I didn't get much cleaning done but did do some organizing.

Now, I'm a very organized person. I routinely organize my home and I can tell you what is in every cabinet, drawer and closet in my home. And I can tell you where about 97% of our stuff can be found. I'm not saying this to brag, just to tell you how I am.

I love to organize, I love the order of items, I love knowing there is a home for everything. For me to feel calm and peaceful in my home I need this order.

There are times that certain areas get messed up and need some reorganization, or areas that I've worked on before but it just isn't working. During the winter/Christmas time a few areas in our home get hit: the garage, the office closet and my china/decorating closet.

The garage gets messed up because it's cold out there in the winter and we don't always put stuff back or we've ended up with some large items that need to be dealt with and they live in the garage till spring.

The office closet gets messed up because at Christmas time we pull the box holding all the wrapping supplies out of the shed and it goes in the office closet. We are very fortunate that the closets in our home are large and this one is about 5ft x 5ft. It also ends up the catch all when I need all the rooms to be picked up and clean. Unfortunately this closet is at the very corner of our home and not really insulated very well. So it ends up like the garage and we mostly stay out of it during the winter months.

My china/decor closet. I have a linen closet in our home that I turned into a place to store all my pretty stuff. This gets hit due to the holidays as well.

SO, anyway back to what I did!

I knew there were a few things I wanted to get rid of out of my china closet, so it got freshened up. After gettting it looking great I was still motivated to organize so I decided to talk the office closet.

Thankfully it was warm enough out that it wasn't freezing in the closet! Since David and I share the closet I could only work on my side (he'll have to do his side later). I have my older scrapbooks in there, office supplies, wrapping supplies and kids crafting supplies in there oh and my reference books too.



My side re-organized.

 I purged some books, and wrapping supplies and it made a huge difference! I moved some stuff around to make it look better too. I had a nice sized Goodwill pile when I was done! I always feel so good when I have a pile of stuff for Goodwill. It makes me feel lighter.

Last night we did some work on the garage. Mostly just putting some stuff back, sweeping and moving stuff around. We did a huge organizing on it last summer and it's working great for us so far.

I wanted to share a couple of tips if you are in need of some help.

First, you can't organize junk. There's no way around it, you have to start by purging. Ask yourself these questions: Do you use it? Do you love it? If it's a no, then it needs to go. If it's sentimental then start a memory box and store those items in there.

Second, you have to organize in a way that works for you and your family. Example, if you always come in the house through your garage and the coat closet it across the house and all the coats end up on the dinning room chairs then that doesn't work for you. Don't fight that the coats don't end up in the closet work with it. Hang hooks by the garage door, or whatever works in your home.

About a year ago I was helping my best friends work on their dinning room and since the garage door dumped them into the dinning room and kitchen all the mail, coats, purses, bags and misc ended up on the dinning room table and floor. And it was hard to walk in there without tripping on all the bags. So I suggested they get some baskets to go under a built in desk in the dinning room. They could have his and hers baskets (hers also got the diaper bag). They would contain any thing that needed to go to work the next day, and all bags and be neatly pushed under the desk.

This system worked great for them and it's now one of their favorite things! There was no sense in making everyone feel guilty because they didn't put the bags and such "where they are supposed to go". We just worked with how they live. We now use baskets in most of their organization in their home. It works great for them!

We are getting ready to tackle their kitchen, so I'll do my best to get some before and afters to show off.

If you need any help leave me a comment, I'd love help you!

WIWW #5

What I Wore Wednesday is brought to you by The Pleated Poppie link up. Where we post what cute things we wore during the week to inspire other mom's to get out of those jammies/sweats and get dressed and share our creativity!

Flats- Famous Footwear

Jeans-Kohl's

Green tank- JCP (another postpartum buy)

Navy Cardi- Gap

Flats-Famous Footwear

Jeans- Kohl's

Shirt-Goodwill (love that place!)

Black Heels-DSW

Jeans-Kohl's

Purple Tank- Target

White Jacket- Kohl's

Necklace- my design

I love this white jacket, it's a petite so it's the perfect length for my short torso and I love the way it looks!

Thanks for looking!

Pillow Shams

I finally got around to making the pillow shams for our master bedroom.
I found the fabric in the remnant pile. There was 3 yards left and that was just about the right amount. I hadn't figured the amount out before finding the fabric so I just took all 3 yards to be safe. I believe it's outdoor fabric, but you can't tell. It looks like upholstery fabric.

I wanted a colored fabric since my sheets are white (and I like that), so I needed a color to break up the white. I already have my headboard fabric which is a striped brown, turquoise, cream, green and the fabric for the shams is a solid turqoise color. So they go well together.

I just made a simple pillow cover and it didn't take me that long maybe 1 1/2 hours for all 3 (we have a king size bed with regular size pillows so we needed 3).

I debated over whether to have a decorative edge or not but in the end having enough fabric made the decision, no edge, just a simple cover.

I really like how they turned out! Here's a pic of them on the bed with the other throw pillows I made. The shams are practically the same color as the small DM pillow, but the pic isn't reflecting that.

I'm getting closer to finishing this room. I need to repaint the dresser and put knobs on it, it doesn't have any right now. And I need to make the headboard, and a few small things. But I'm pleased with the results and excited to show off the whole room when it's done!

Confessions of a Sugar-aholic

Hello, my name is Marixa and I'm addicted to sugar.

I finally came to this conclusion a few months ago. I would eat something sweet and then within a half hour I'd have a headache. When I started seeing the connection I knew I was addicted.

I've known for a while that I needed to do something about it but as with addictions it's not always easy.

Last week I was reading a blog post called Unexpected Benefits of a Whole Foods Diet and I was convicted and inspired to make a change. It was hurting me and I think my mood was being affected as well. It was time to stop this crazy cycle and take control of my health.

I have decided to start with giving up sugar (all forms of processed, not natural) for Lent.

Now, I've never given anything up for Lent and frankly I don't care for the whole Fat Tuesday thing. But, I want this to be a time to break the habit, and give my body plenty of time to get the sugar out of my system and honor my body and God with my eating habits.

I don't think (at least right now) that I could go forever without eating sugar, but I will need to be very careful about letting it back in my life. After all I'm addicted. I've noticed in the past that eating some after a while I then need more and now this is where I am.

I'm anxious to see how I feel in 7 weeks and look. I know this won't be easy but I'm going to do this. I have to, I feel like I'm poisoning my body.

So, I'm telling all you to help keep me accountable and if you have any words of wisdom, tips and tricks or encouragement it will be great appreciated!

And pray for my family as they live with me for a while!!!